The United States Post Office in the central business district of Scottsbluff is a significant example of Late Renaissance Revival architecture that reflects sophistication through its fine craftsmanship and building materials. The architectural design features the city’s grandest display of terracotta as a building material and serves as a testament to the refinement of Federal architecture of the time. The Late Renaissance Revival style was popular for monumental buildings constructed in Nebraska between the late 1890s and World War II.

The community conceived the post office project at an optimistic time of tremendous growth in the Scottsbluff community in the 1920s. Originally, the ambitious young city called for a much larger post office building complete with elevator shafts and a courtroom.  Due to the onset of the Great Depression, however, the post office the Federal Government constructed between 1931 and 1932 was on a much smaller scale. Despite the reduction in size, the building is one of the most notable landmarks in the city.

James A. Wetmore, the Acting Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury, was responsible for the design. The post office is a two-story, rectangular masonry building with an imposing terracotta front façade. The front façade is comprised of seven bays, and the middle five bays are light, buff-colored terracotta, while the outer two bays are red brick. The bays are divided by six monumental pilasters. Each pilaster features a heavily molded base, a simple shaft of smooth terracotta blocks that alternate in one- and two-block courses, and an ornate classical capital. A simple entablature spans the pilasters with “United States Post Office” engraved in the center. The impressive lobby has a grand staircase to the second floor.

In the late 1980s, the United States Postal Service erected a new, larger post office in Scottsbluff.  Baker and Associates, Inc., an engineering and architectural firm, purchased the historic post office building.  The firm did a sensitive renovation of the building’s features and subdivided it into office space.